Festive Saturday Led

So I had this bright idea that I would do Mysore this morning, instead of led. Uh, yeah, that was the plan, until I slept in until 8. Alright, led it is.

Class was packed. As I was going in, Volleyball Guy came over and gave me a big hug. It was nice. Welcoming. And surprising. He's not a terribly demonstrative guy.

Practice was very hot, due to the crush of practitioners. I had a little trouble focusing at first--everything felt so festive that I kept glancing around. It seemed like the fun thing to do. I was thrilled in prasarita padottanasana B and C to be able to get my head on the floor, no problem. But then my glancing caught up to me, in prasarita C. Suddenly, everything started to spin. Oh great, I thought, I'm gonna faint. So I tried focusing my drishti properly and tuned in to my breathing, and everything got back to normal. I wondered how I'd fare in parsvottanasana, which for some inexplicable reason is a pose that almost inevitably makes me feel woozy, but apparently I'd used up all my swooning potential on prasarita C.

From there on, practice rocked. One of those warm, easy practices, where every bind is a cinch, all forward bends are easy and feel great--you know, the way practice should always be ;-)

My knee feels kind of crappy. Achey and not resilient, but I'm trying not to focus on that too much. It's something that's just going to have to play itself out.

Dropbacks are coming along nicely--I'm not hating backbends as vehemently as I was a few weeks ago. I think I may have a love-hate relationship with backbends as I continue my practice. I can easily imagine times when I will be psyched to practice them and find lots of pleasure in them. Conversely, it's pretty easy for me to dread and hate them. For now, though, I am learning more and more how to contract my quads to pull myself up from urdhva dhanurasana (with a spot, of course). This way of working my quads is not at all like anything I've ever experienced in weight training, running, martial arts, cardio machining, climbing, or any other sport or activity I've ever done. It's like a weird contraction that happens at the inserts, rather than the belly of the muscle, it seems. I have no idea how to conceptualize it, but I imagine if I keep practicing it, I will eventually "figure it out." Maybe not with my mind, but with my body. Not my usual MO, but hey, it's always good to try something new...